It was a career-busting scandal. Who would want her advice now that she’d proven herself a hypocrite by marrying her complete opposite, a virtual stranger? It would kill sales on her book. And she could probably kiss the Glamour and syndicated columns good-bye. How could she face Rosewood after disappointing them so? How could she face her faithful readers?

“I suggest you call Chloe and offer to break the news to Paul. She probably won’t let you, but—”

“I will. I’ll do that. What else can I do?”

“Don’t talk to anybody. You might be getting calls, or worse. Let us get a game plan together before you say anything publicly.”

No need to worry about that. All she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and have someone fill it with dirt. “All right. Calling Chloe now.”

“Good luck.” The sarcastic tone wasn’t lost on Kate.

She punched in her editor’s cell number, seeing the calls she’d missed on the screen and thinking about Lucas again.

Chloe answered immediately. Her tone was basted in stress. “Kate.” She swore. “I guess you know the spot this puts me in.”

“I’m so sorry, Chloe. I’ll take complete responsibility.” And she should, as it was entirely her fault. “Let me call Paul and tell him. He needn’t know you were involved.”

Chloe raised her voice. “You don’t think he’s going to ask me if I knew? I’m not going to lie, Kate.”

Kate rubbed her forehead. Why did I do it, God? If she could only go back and do the day over. She should have done the honest thing and admitted to the media that the engagement was broken. But how could she have done that at the release of her book? Rosewood would have paid the cost for her personal crisis.

They were paying now anyway. A higher price than before.

“I know. I know, Chloe. Tell me what I can do.” She waited, sure Chloe was doing her deep yoga breaths. There weren’t enough yoga classes in the world to help ease this kind of stress.

“Just give me time to think. I’ll tell Paul when we get off the phone and get back with you. Just—just go home and hole up until you hear from me.” She huffed. “You know this is going to be all over the news by tonight. The papers, the news—it’s going to be everywhere.”

Kate had been hoping it might quietly blow over, but she knew that kind of optimism was unjustified.

Chloe ended the call, and Kate thought again about calling Lucas. She decided to listen to the voice mails first.

The first two were Pam and Chloe. Lucas’s was the third. She listened to the familiar deep tone, closing her eyes and wishing he were beside her in the car.